Matt Scudder is a previous cop now a private investigator. He is asked by a street pharmacist to discover the men who captured his wife. It appears as though they executed her considerably after he paid them. Scudder won’t. At the same time the man later goes to see him and lets him know how his wife was killed. Scudder accepts the employment. He does some examination and thinks the men he is searching for have done this more than once. Furthermore that everybody they got is associated with a street pharmacist. He was going to surrender when they get an alternate young lady and Scudder tries verify she’s returned alive.